


Dive in with both feet. And a tail.

by kira892



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, MerMay, Merlance, merman au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-03 21:45:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10975947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kira892/pseuds/kira892
Summary: Lance (and itisLance. It'sLance. Stop freaking out.) smiles at him, gray lips parting over wicked looking teeth. He's clinging to the side of the boat, arms hooked over the polished, wooden rim. There are fins on his forearms, something he hadn't noticed the first time around. They're mostly blue, lighter than the rest of his skin and fading into gray near the tips.“Hey Sailor.” Lance greets him with a wink.





	Dive in with both feet. And a tail.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my piece for mermay, enjoy!

 

 

There's something particularly serene about the the ocean at sunrise, Hunk thinks as he watches the calm, steady rolling of waves stretching out for miles in every direction, relishes the quiet and the stillness. He takes a breath, inhaling the strong smell of salt and the soft texture of dewy, early morning air. 

 

At the horizon, light was barely just beginning to creep up, bisecting sea and sky with a muted wash of soft pinks, purples, oranges and yellows. It's all very beautiful. Peaceful....and yet

 

He takes another breath, deeper than the first. It rattles a little as he feels his stress levels begin to spike once more, remembering the reason they were out here. Moment of peace completely shattered, he looks to the opposite end of the boat where Lance is sitting, staring at the water with palpable excitement. Sensing his gaze, he turns and the wide grin that spreads on his face makes Hunk think of a child that's just been told that his birthday, Christmas, Easter and Halloween have all decided to team up and are happening right this second. It's admittedly adorable and it almost makes his nerves go away. Almost. 

 

“Are you really sure we should be doing this?” he asks for the millionth time that morning. 

 

As always, Lance answers his fretting with a dismissive wave of his hand and an easy “Chillax, Hunk.” He reaches for the zipper at the base of his throat and tilts his head  at the water. “This isn't a fishing spot, we're miles away from a public beach and even if we weren't, no one's going to be up this early.” he said, unzipping the thin hoodie he's wearing with a quick tug.  

 

Hunk bites his lip, watching silently as Lance stands and slides the hoodie off his shoulders. He isn't wearing a shirt. Hunk looks around nervously, not comforted in the slightest by the fact that there's nothing in sight (so far) save for water and sky. 

 

“And yes, I really  _ should _ be doing this. Think of it like a vampire needing blood, except with salt water.” Lance adds, kicking off his shoes and starting in on his jeans. He’s no longer looking at him, instead watching the water like it's going to get up and run away if he doesn't get in it in the next ten seconds.

 

The words  give Hunk pause, mind wandering unpleasantly back to a few months earlier; how alarmingly weak Lance got, his sunken eyes and ashen skin, sleepless nights spent lying next to him when the fatigue morphed into pain.

 

Hunk shakes the memories off determinedly, tuning back into the present just in time to catch a glimpse of Lance, now naked as the day he was born before he leaps off the boat and into the water with a delighted 'whoop!!'

 

Hunk leans over, watching the ripples Lance made with a nauseating mix of anticipation and anxiety roiling around in his gut. He waits, staring fixedly at the spot where Lance disappeared. Twenty seconds goes by with nothing, then twenty five and as the seconds crawled past thirty, Hunk cautiously leans out further, leaning down towards the water just a little bit.

 

“Lance...?” he calls out, tense. 

 

“Psst over here.” comes a hushed whisper from the other side of the boat. 

 

Hunk jumps and immediately slides over to look but he only catches a quick movement, the shape of a fin silhouetted in the gloom. He frowns.

 

He hears a loud splash from behind him and feels his stomach lurch downward as the boat suddenly tilts sideways. He yelps, holding on to the side of the boat for dear life. It rocks back and forth for a bit, struggling against the imbalance and Hunk doesn't dare move until it stops. When it does, settling at an uneven slope, he whips around, glaring.

 

He knows what he's going to find but still, it takes him some effort to keep the surprise from wiping the displeasure off his face. 

 

It's Lance. He knows it's Lance. He tells himself this as he looks straight into those eyes. They're bigger, still blue but the color is slightly off. ( _ brighter  _ his subconscious whispers, inhuman) They're different enough to almost be unrecognizable but the familiarity and the fondness they look at him with are unmistakable and it makes the rest of it a little easier to take in. 

 

Lance (and it  _ is  _ Lance. It's  _ Lance. Stop freaking out. _ ) smiles at him, gray lips parting over wicked looking teeth. He's clinging to the side of the boat, arms hooked over the polished, wooden rim. There are fins on his forearms, something he hadn't noticed the first time around. They're mostly blue, lighter than the rest of his skin and fading into gray near the tips. 

 

“Hey Sailor.” Lance greets him with a wink. 

 

God, even his voice is a little different. There are slits on either side of his neck. Hunk remembers seeing those before and it's only now that he realizes they're gills. Makes sense, he reasons. Altered anatomy could mean different vocal chords, meaning it could definitely alter the sound of a voice.

 

“Hey,” Lance says again. He sounds concerned. Hunk's eyes snap back to his face. There's a wrinkle on his forehead, giving the impression that if he still had eyebrows, they would be furrowed right now. 

 

“It's just me.” he says softly, reaching out towards Hunk with a webbed hand like he was trying to pet a frightened stray. 

 

Tentatively, Hunk scoots forward a little and reaches back, letting out a breath he didn't realize he's been holding when his fingers touch Lance's smooth, cold ones.  Encouraged by the contact, Lance gives him another smile, close mouthed this time, cautious. Their fingers curl around each other, Lance's thumb, resting on top of Hunk's knuckles. The webbing between his fingers stretch across his skin and Hunk stares at it with a deep frown, not understanding how the touch and sight of it still can’t quite confirm that it's real, that this is all real. 

 

“I don't think I'll ever get used to this.” he admits.

 

“You didn't faint this time. You're getting there.” Lance says with a shrug. The significant dimming of his smile betrays him though and Hunk grips his fingers tighter.

 

“My boyfriend is a fish.” He says, mock thoughtful. Inadvertently, the memories he had suppressed earlier come back full force and with them, came the awful feeling of fear, the helplessness of not knowing what was wrong or what to do. Admittedly, to say that the cause of the sickness being  _ this _ completely blindsided him would be an understatement but. As uncomfortable and  _ weird _ as it all is, he'll gladly take it over Lance suffering.  Smiling tentatively, he scoots forward a little bit more, as far as he could without tipping the boat over and leans forward to press a kiss to Lance's thumb

 

“That's pretty cool i guess.” he says. 

 

Lance rears back a little, offended. “Really? You went with fish? You couldn't have said my boyfriend is mythical? Magical? Amazing?” he demands. Despite the slight however, he doesn't let go of Hunk's hand and there's something lurking under his pout that looks suspiciously like a smile. 

 

“What? I said you're pretty cool and hey it's not like I'm wrong.” Hunk replies, wiggling the fingers of his free hand next to his cheek, indicating the fins that are on either side of Lance's face, covering his ears if he still has them. 

 

“Hehe. I shall call him fishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my fishy.” Hunk coos and though it's on a face that is a lot different, the indignant, unimpressed expression that he gets in response is one hundred percent Lance. The sight of it chases away the uncertainty and the fear until there's barely a trace of them left. 

 

Abruptly, Lance pulls back, tugging his hand away from Hunk's so he could plunge both hands into the water and throw a big splash of it in Hunk's face. He sputters, shivering as the water soaks the front of his shirt.

 

“Lance!” he squawks, scrubbing at his face and blinking a few times against the sting of salt. He hears laughter and the movement of water as it’s disturbed and when he finally manages to wipe most of the water off with his sleeve, Lance is nowhere to be seen. Hunk leans back against the outboard motor with a small sigh. 

 

He looks up, admiring the dark shapes clusters of clouds make against the steadily lightening sky. They came out here so Lance could swim and just be in the ocean, something that Lance's parents have informed them is now a regular requirement if he wants to stay healthy. He sighs again. 

 

All things considered, he and Lance are taking this whole merman thing pretty well.  Lance more than him. Which is probably weird considering he isn't the one who just found out he's...magical? A different species? A different magical species? And had what amounted to “we don't know how or why either all we know is it runs in the family” as the only explanation given to him. But then again he supposes, it is Lance. 

 

He jumps when he hears movement in the water right next to him followed by “Bu-rum”. Before he could do anything, the sounds come again, a little further down the boat. “Bu -rum.” 

 

Frowning a little, Hunk leans over to look and sees the top of Lance's head sticking out of the water. His eyes are visible and Hunk watches as they crinkle in mirth before Lance rises a little bit more, freeing his mouth. “Bu-rum bu-rum bu-rum.” 

 

He continues humming the jaws theme as he slowly swims towards him. Hunk could see his tail moving behind him in the water; long, and sinuous and actually really fucking creepy. He shudders, reaches into the water and gets Lance back for earlier with a small wave of water right in the face. 

 

“Stop it you weirdo.”

 

Lance laughs and dives back down into the depths and this time he stays below, beyond Hunk's sight. Occasionally, he resurfaces, waving at Hunk with a wide sweep of an arm or a quirky little flip of a tail before plunging back underwater. The minutes drag by, five then ten and then fifteen. Hunk watches the sun climb slowly from beyond the horizon, chasing away the shadowy blues and purples of midnight out of the sky  and wishes he had the foresight to bring a book or his tablet or something to keep him occupied. Not long after the thought occurs to him, Lance resurfaces.  His head comes up slowly, right beside Hunk and his hands follow, reaching up to grasp the side of the boat.

 

“Hi.”

 

Soft orange light find a small cluster of translucent scales on Lance's forehead and a light dusting of them along the sharp, high cut of each cheekbone. They glimmer at him as Lance smiles and this time he ignores every impulse to resist the impossible reality of all this, ignores caution and lets his curious nature take the reigns. (It's  _ still _ Lance _. It's just Lance.) _ He reaches out, touching fingertips tentatively to Lance's cheek. 

 

Lance welcomes the contact, turning his head briefly to press a kiss to Hunk's fingers and then rubbing his cheek encouragingly against them. He's cold and his skin feels like nothing Hunk has ever felt on a living creature before. He bites his lip, tracing the spines on Lance's face fins with his index finger, feels out how delicate and thin they are and lets his fingers climb higher, sliding them into Lance's hair and noting with relief that it at least feels the same. 

 

“Hey Hunk?”

 

He startles a little and automatically begins to pull away but Lance stops him, one hand coming up to wrap around his wrist. 

 

“Sorry. Yeah?” he asks.

 

Lance hesitates. His other hand comes up, pulling Hunk's away from his cheek so he could fold it between both of his. 

 

“Thanks. You know, for this. For coming out here and for being cool with,” he pauses, gesturing presumably to all of himself with a meaningful downward tilt of his eyes. He scoffs softly. “or at least as cool as you can be.”

 

Hunk tries to give him an indignant look and probably fails miserably, charmed by the sentiment and the nervous way Lance is looking at him. Like he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop, as if despite his words he’s expecting Hunk to bolt and disappear from his life forever.

 

“Excuse me, I think I kept my freaking out to a perfectly reasonable amount.” He sniffs then adds when he gets another small smile from Lance, still tentative, “And dude, come on. I can't count how many times you've almost given me an aneurysm. I still stuck around didn't I? If i can live through all of that, I doubt you suddenly being part fish is going to make me stop liking you.”

 

And there it is. The rows of needle sharp teeth do very little to stop the familiar unfurling of warmth  in his chest because even they couldn't ruin that smile. The one that always makes him feel like he's the most brilliant thing Lance has ever seen, the one that could made every misadventure, every mishap, every argument, worth it all on its own. 

 

Lance says nothing and knowing how rare his silences are, Hunk doesn't either. He just lets Lance squeeze his hand and press a long, close-mouthed kiss to his wrist. It makes something in him ache with the most wonderful kind of pain. He's always known Lance to be reckless, relying on the loyalty and affections of everyone around him with the kind of blind faith that trusts them to stick by him no matter what he does. He doesn't think he's ever seen him be this careful, as if Hunk was the one thing he absolutely couldn't stand to lose. 

 

Still with his mouth to Hunk's skin, Lance's eyes meet his and he grins, wide and playful. Abruptly he lets go and reaches up towards Hunk with both hands, confirming the gesture with a simple command of “Help me up.”

 

Hunk frowns, turning his head to survey their boat. It's not particularly spacious and he's pretty sure that it doesn't have enough room for him, Lance and all the water Lance is going to bring with him. 

 

“Uhh,” he begins, turning back to Lance who's now opening and closing his fists like a toddler demanding to be picked up. 

 

“We just had a tender moment, kisses are mandatory. Or at least a cuddle. I demand at least one cuddle.” Lance says, clinging to the side of the boat and pulling himself up until his chin hovered above it. 

 

“You know normally I never say no to cuddles but we only packed one towel for you.” Hunk tells him.

 

“Come oooooon,” Lance draws the word out, apparently sticking with the theme of acting like he's five instead of almost twenty. “You said the mer thing isn't a deal breaker. C'mmere and give me a smooch sailor.” 

 

“I don't know, I've heard what happens when sailors get kisses from mermaids.” Hunk says, laughing and playfully pushing Lance's head away when he pitches forward, attempting to haul himself into the boat. 

 

“Well then lucky for you I'm no maid then.” Lance retorts, the latter half of his sentence almost lost to  the loud grunt he makes when he drops briefly back into the water and propels himself upward with a powerful beat of his tail. Hunk yelps as Lance's torso flops into the boat with all the grace of... well, a fish out of water. The boat jerks and rocks with the sudden movement, once again threatening to tip over and Hunk hurriedly grabs hold of Lance, helping him heave the rest of himself up into the boat as quickly and carefully as he can. 

 

“Ow, ow, ow,” Lance mutters as his tail is dragged up over the side of the boat like a length of rope, fins catching on the solid surface. Hunk watches with a small wince that morphs into a concerned grimace when the tail just keeps going. And going, scraping against the boat with every inch. 

 

Lance has to bend and contort his tail in a way that may or may not be causing him a lot of discomfort to fit inside the boat and still, the very end of it ends up hanging off the edge, the tips of his flutes still dipped into the water. 

 

This is his first good look at it and Hunk takes it all in with wide eyes. It looks even longer than he expected, beginning at Lance's hips and tapering off into a lean point, barely bigger than Lance's forearms. It's mostly blue, dappled with shades of gray, white and black that reminds him a little of koi fish. There's a stripe of white running through the middle of it and Hunk's eyes follow it up, all the way to Lance's chest where it blends seamlessly into the blues and grays around his collar bones. His chest is visibly lifting and falling. There are slits along his ribs, bigger than the ones on his neck and Hunk watches as they expand and contract with every breath, wondering if it's a struggle for him to breathe above water. 

 

“Well, looks like you got quite a catch here.” Lance opines,  drawing Hunk's attention away from his freaky rib gills.  When he looks up at his face, there's some twitchy movement going on near his forehead. It takes Hunk a second to realize that he's doing what amounts to waggling eyebrows.  He laughs.

 

“Don't do that, it looks so weird.”

 

“What, you mean this?” Lance asks innocently and amps up the waggling of his non-existent brows.

 

Hunk laughs again and grabs Lance by his arms, hauling him as close as all his spikes and fins would allow and putting his palm to Lance's forehead. “Stop it.”  

 

Lance smiles at him and relents and when he leans in, Hunk lets him, chuckling softly when the back of his own hand comes into contact with his forehead. Lance snorts too and pushes Hunk's hand away, leaning in the last few inches separating them to touch their foreheads together. Hunk closes his eyes.

 

(Smells different. Feels different. _ Everything is different. It's all wrong.) _ Hunk shakes his head a little. “It's still you.” he murmurs.

 

“Yes it is.” Lance whispers back and Hunk feels his hesitation in the soft brush of breath against his lips, comfortingly warm. He hovers for another second and then there were lips on his; cool, smooth and foreign but gentle, so painfully gentle, tender. 

 

“You okay?” Lance asks as he pulls away. 

 

Hunk opens his eyes. He looks straight into those big, blue eyes and takes a deep breath. 

 

“Yeah.” 

 

He is. They are. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr at [redblackandwhiteallover](http://redblackandwhiteallover.tumblr.com/)


End file.
